Jasna Scepanovic Says Macedonia Visit With Son Was Denied
The singer says she was not allowed to see her son in Macedonia after her former partner began serving a sentence. Her next meeting with the boy is October 16.
Singer Jasna Scepanovic could not see her six-year-old son when she traveled to Macedonia this week. Her next meeting with him is scheduled for October 16, at a Social Work Centre. She spoke about it in an interview with Telegraf published on October 11, and made similar statements to Blic.
Scepanovic has been in a custody dispute over her son for almost four years. The boy is six and turns seven on October 31. The singer says her son was taken from her on January 27, without naming the year, and that the first time she saw him afterward was at a Social Work Centre, when he was two and a half.
Why did the visit in Macedonia fall through?
Scepanovic says she did not go for a court hearing but to spend time with her child. On the spot, she says, she was told that was not possible.
I was in the Republic of Macedonia, but not for the hearing. I went, as agreed, to visit my minor child and spend time with him. However, I was not allowed to.
According to her, the reason is that her former partner began serving a criminal sentence on September 17. She says the sentence relates to forging her signature on a consent form. The social services told her, she says, that a decision allows her to see her son twice a month, on the first and third Friday, at the Social Work Centre and in the presence of social workers. October 16 is the third Friday of the month.
The singer says the management of the Social Work Centre told her they had visited the boy and that he is living in good conditions, with the wife and mother of her former partner. The findings, she says, will be sent to Montenegro. Scepanovic is also writing about the case on her Instagram profile.
She adds that she talks with her son every day but has no chance to see him. The last time they were together was Easter, with her parents and her former partner, who, she says, did not allow them to be alone with the child. After that, she says, they communicated well, until her former partner went to serve his sentence.
Scepanovic told Blic:
The last time I spent four days together with my child was at Easter
Custody in Montenegro, citizenship in Macedonia
The singer says full custody was awarded to her in Montenegro, her son’s country of birth, but that the ruling is not recognized in Macedonia. She notes that Montenegro and Macedonia have an agreement on recognizing foreign court rulings, but says it is not being applied.
According to her, the boy also received Macedonian citizenship on the basis of a forged consent form and power of attorney. She says her signature was forged on both documents, that everything was issued within a span of seven days, and that she is working to annul the issuing of the passport and citizenship. A further dispute over the power of attorney is coming, she says. His side of the story is not known: her former partner does not comment in her interviews.
Her lawyer, she says, is continuing through legal channels because the child was not handed over to his mother as the ruling requires. For now she is left with visits twice a month in the presence of social workers. She says she told her son she has to go on an urgent business trip and will come back in ten days. As for October 16, she says she is preparing herself mentally.
What does Scepanovic want to tell her son?
She explained to Blic why she went public.
Unfortunately, I was forced to talk about this publicly because I have run into all sorts of bans countless times.
To Telegraf she spoke about the years she has lost.
Nobody can give me back those years taken from me, the ones I should have spent beside him
She says she is fighting for the years ahead, so that her son grows up to be a good man. She also told Telegraf she would give up her career for her child.
For my child, I am ready to give up my job too, and tomorrow I could put down the microphone and clean the entrance of an apartment building, just so my child can be happy.
Every public appearance she makes, she says, carries the same message for her son: that she never gave up on him.
I gave birth to him with the intention of being his mother and of us being a family.
